As communications devices are widely applied, increasingly more data packets are transmitted. Currently, when user equipment needs to send uplink data, a radio resource control (RRC) connection and a non-access stratum connection usually need to be set up first, and the uplink data is sent after a service bearer is set up.
In the foregoing technology, before sending the uplink data, the user equipment needs to establish the RRC connection and the non-access stratum connection and request a network to schedule an uplink resource. Consequently, uplink data sending efficiency of the user equipment is low.